My Lady
by Blitz Chick
Summary: ONESHOT! Adam Malkovich reflects on his relationship with Samus Aran, his Lady. Is the long road worth it all?


AUTHOR'S NOTE: I do not own Metroid. I do not own Samus Aran or Adam Malkovich. If I butcher the characters, so sue me.

They called her many names. The Hunter was among the most common. But as far as I'm concerned, a woman like that has only one name.

Lady.

It was my little way of letting her know I cared. That no matter what she heard, Commanding Officer Adam Malkovich cared about his people.

I guess I should start from the beginning. That's always the best place to start.

She came to me when I was almost in my tenth year of being a commander. I was younger then. My hair had begun to betray my age, seeing as it was taking on gray flecks. I will never forget the day I first set eyes on her.

Her name was unkown. She looked like she'd been dragged backwards kicking and screaming into a nest of Metroids.

And she came out kicking and screaming.

At first I wondered if she was wild, possibly rabid. She was alone in a medical holding cell, curled in the corner. She was captivating, even from a distance. I could see that she was strong, with nicely toned muscles. Long blonde hair flowed down her back and she was tan from long hours in the sun. Anyone could see she was beautiful despite the fact that she was beaten and ragged.

Then she looked at me.

Never have I seen so many emotions in one set of eyes. Her eyes were a stunning sky blue. At first I saw anger in her eyes. Anger and determination that could, and on occasion would, burn holes through you if she got the chance. But there was one feeling that burned brighter than the rest. It was the one that stuck me the most.

Sorrow.

It was everywhere about her. It wasn't something that was temporary too. I could feel it. Something terrible had happened to her…something that left a huge wound that nobody could heal.

I guess you could say that from that moment on our destinies were twined together. But I was never one to believe in destiny. Not until I met her.

It took weeks before the order came through for me to train her. I knew it would be me, and not anybody else. She wouldn't speak at all; she'd just sit in the corner. I was the only one she'd look at or take food from. After a time she finally was fit enough to be up and around, participating like a normal girl.

It took even longer for her to speak. I would try every way I knew to get her to speak to me. We had no way of knowing her name, so until then I had been calling her _chica_, the Spanish word for girl.

Finally, she spoke. It was in a soft voice, but one with great conviction to it.

"Samus. My name is Samus Aran."

And from that point on she was Samus Aran. She began to speak more, and usually that meant she spoke her mind. And that usually meant some verbal abuse for someone or something.

I'm not sure when I began to call her Lady. It happened gradually. As she began training and came into her own it became more and more fitting of her. I myself didn't notice I was doing it until one day she pointed it out.

"My name is Samus Aran! Why do you always call me Lady?"

And although I usually had an answer to any question she threw at me, I found that I couldn't answer this one. I just smiled and let her yell while I continued to work.

Months passed and before either of us knew it, we were closer than family. I never had any children, but I found that I wasn't too bad of a father for Samus. I had heard of her past and what happened to her parents. If I hadn't known any better I would've said she was lying, but my Lady never lied, and she was quite the exceptional being.

And then it came. Her first mission. She was gone for days. And although I was in constant contact with her via her ship, I found that I missed her light and warmth in the mornings.

I was never a morning person, but she loved them dearly and would always wake me up as soon as the sun came up. It was something I could count on from the moment she was healthy enough to do so.

When she came back it was like a breath I didn't know I had been holding was released. She was so happy that she had been successful, and I knew she was going to amazing. She looked so right, standing there in her Power Suit, reenacting every little fight for my sake.

We continued happily for a few more months. Then her second mission rolled around.

That's when everything came crashing down around us.

It had started as a routine check of a satellite for Space Pirate interference. I went along for good measure.

The satellite turned out to be a trap. The Pirates had rigged it to explode as soon as Samus entered the computer. There was only time for one of us to escape the blast field in time.

I recall seeing her ship escape through the hanger doors, then a bright light. After that and everything turns black.

It seemed like seconds later I heard someone call my name. I wondered if I had died at all. Then I tried to move.

The Galactic Federation explained everything to me, starting with my death. It had been almost six years since then and Samus was nineteen. She was a bounty hunter now, and she herself had almost died recently as a result of an infection with a parasitic life form known as X.

My mind had been preserved in a computer and I was to act as Samus's computerized Commanding Officer. If I could have, I would have winced. My Lady hated taking orders. But in order for me to perform this task, I was not to tell her who I was. It was a daunting challenge, but if it meant that I'd get to see her again, I would gladly do it.

So as the two of us left for the BSL space station, I wondered. Did she remember me? How had my death affected her? Did she miss me at all? The flight was long, even for a fast ship like we had.

Lady slept for most of the flight. She was still weak from the X infection, but she would be damned if she failed to eradicate the X.

"Why…"

I remember that's what I heard while she slept. Lady would sometimes talk in her sleep. It was a way her subconscious could speak what it wanted to while the conscious was unaware.

"Why did you leave Adam…?"

I guess that's when it struck me. She still cared. Even though it had been so long since we spoke, she cared.

If I could, I would have cried. But I wasn't human any more. I was a computer. All the same, I wanted to reach out and comfort her. Using my new voice for the first time, I spoke.

"I never left you Lady. Never."

Time has passed since that mission. We realize who the other is now, and our reunion has been filled with new experiences. I know that she's not my little girl any more, but a real Lady.


End file.
